Laying vehicles of this kind are particularly known for magnetic levitation railways, which for example are driven by a long-stator linear motor and which, for this purpose, have an inductor in form of a long-stator that extends over the entire guideway and is provided with grooves. These grooves serve to accommodate a traveling-field winding laid like an meander-shaped undulation and formed from three electrical lines corresponding to the three phases of an electrical three-phase current winding, wherein these three lines are alternately inserted only into every third groove. As these lines are comparably rigid, they are bent like a meander before being inserted into the grooves, thus creating so-called undulations (meanders), which comprise straight limbs coming to rest in these grooves as well as bent winding heads connecting the limbs and being mounted outside the grooves. Since the winding heads belonging to different lines cross over each other, they must also be offset, i.e. be bent transversely to the planes in which the undulations lie. All of this is associated with a plurality of working steps and requires strenuous labor if laid manually, because the grooves of an already mounted long-stator are usually open to the bottom and because the lines, therefore, must be pressed from below into the grooves.
For ease of work and far-reaching automation of laying work, a laying vehicle movable along the guideway is known (DE 33 23 691 A1) which is equipped with supply spools for meander-shaped prefabricated and offset lines as well as with a pressing station for automatically pressing (inserting) the limbs of the undulations into the grooves of the long-stator. As the lengths of the windings which can be wound onto the supply spools are comparably small, a laying vehicle is already known that is equipped with a complete bending and offset unit. Thereby, the shaping of the lines can be executed on the laying vehicle and consequently, the length of the lines carried on the supply spools can be substantially increased (e.g. DE 37 37 719 C2). To remedy any deficiencies that might occur, a laying vehicle has also become known which provides a spatial separation of the pressing station from the bending and offset unit as well as transport device in form of an endless circulating transport rope for transporting the preshaped lines from the bending and offset unit to the pressing station (DE 198 33 418 A1). Furthermore, a laying vehicle is known in which the bending and offset unit as well as the pressing station are mounted on a mounting carriage that can be moved to and fro on the laying vehicle (DE 100 11 117 B4). Thereby it is possible for the laying vehicle and the supply spools of the lines to move at constant speed and continuously, respectively, along the guideway, whereas the mounting carriage is kept on standstill relative to the long-stator during those phases in which the undulations are pressed into the grooves (=pressing steps) and is moved between the pressing steps to the next pressing position (=transport steps) at a speed increased in comparison with the laying vehicle.
In their practical application, the vehicles described have not proved to be adequately reliable and fast, and moreover they at least partly require substantial constructive cost and expenditure. In practice, therefore, laying vehicles of the species designated hereinabove are nowadays used in which the bending and offset unit is mounted on a preceding vehicle part, while the pressing station is mounted on a succeeding (following) vehicle part. A slide (chute) carried along by the preceding vehicle part serves to transfer the undulations discharged from the bending and offset unit to the pressing station.
A problem not yet solved satisfactorily with any of the laying vehicles described herein-above lies in that the distances of the undulation limbs to be inserted into the grooves fail to remain exactly constant on their way from the bending and offset unit to the pressing station, particularly if circulating transport ropes or mounting carriages moving to and fro are provided on the laying vehicle or if the laying vehicle comprises vehicle parts that are movable relative to each other. Therefore, with the laying vehicles of the species designated hereinabove, plates or other fixing means serving as spacers are utilized into which the undulation limbs are laid when they leave the bending and offset unit. On the one hand this produces a disadvantage in that these fixing means must be manually removed from the undulations when they reach the pressing station and that the undulation limbs then must also be laid manually onto the pressing element of the pressing station which calls for additional manpower. On the other hand, during the pressing steps, only one undulation limb at a time can be pressed into the pertinent groove of the long-stator, thus limiting the laying speed.